The testing team recruited the former in-depth interviewing team members; their prior understanding and knowledge of homescreen made the work easier to start. In fact testing user recruitment was completed within one day. Testing materials were presented through flash, and cards were added as supplements, to facilitate and enhance user understanding of the UIUE design features of the tested homescreen. Preliminary tests were conducted with actual representative users of the product, providing opportunities to understand and practice scheduling testing sessions and sequencing testing components and tasks; further revision was done of the usability testing plan based on insights from these pre-tests, too.

Here I would like to discuss two findings from this usability testing. Their implications may extend beyond to work for any type of user testing.

1. Monitor user moods.

This observation has come from the last testing user, who was annoyed when a security guard asked him to get registered for entry into the testing laboratory. The guard was just doing his job; and the user was supposed to do as he was required.

Let me explain this here: in recruiting testing users, we will inform them of testing environment, facilities and mode, and inquire their opinions too. If the user disagrees, he/or she will not be recruited for the test.

So as a recruit, this user should have been informed the rule of registration for the lab. Then, right when the test was about to start, this annoyed user started to complain about the “indignity” of registration, claiming such requirement was a humiliation to him, and that it was the source of all existing evils in social systems and human equality!

At first, we explained with great patience, wishing this emotional user could display understanding, only to find he turned increasingly sensational. Apparently this user was not in the right mood for a usability test or rational thinking. Even if we started the test immediately, it would not mean much. Decidedly we postponed his test. We had talks with him. We tried our best to calm him. Eventually, our patience and sincerity won him over; about 10 or more minutes later, this user calmed down and expressed his understanding of our work. Finally, the whole test wound up smoothly.

Being open and sincere is an important technique, or rather an attitude, to conduct user testing successfully. The case above is a good illustrate of this point: being open and sincere in the testing requires the interviewer listen attentively, interact dynamically, switch topics like a diplomat, always alert to the subtleties in user responses. In fact, this technique should be extended into each and every stage of user testing, including inviting users through phone calls, receiving users at the entry to testing labs, their leave-taking after tests, etc. The reason is simple: each and any of these stages can have impact on the testing user’s cognition, mood, attitude, psychology of thinking, and eventually the quality and value of the whole testing.

2. Identify user “lies”.

User responses in interviews fall into three broad categories: complimentary, critical and neutral.  Users of the first category of responses can always find strengths of tested products, and are often very generous with compliments, marking the majority of the tested products and near-100 points. Even when they do report some problem, don’t expect them to be frank and direct. They are the cautious type, often very cautious in identifying the problem, and even more so in claiming it a design defect of the product itself. Instead, they will put the blame on themselves, claiming they are not familiar with such products, or not skilled in using them, or even not intelligent as users.

Unlike the complimentary type, users of the critical type tend to present themselves as very experienced, always citing examples, comparing and contrasting, using jargons in their reports. Their comments are full of criticism, direct and very sharp, sometimes even exaggerated. No words like “good” can be found in their rankings. They use “just so-so” for “good”, “poor” for “just so-so”, and the truly “poor” will become unbearable to them!

The neutral type of users are more like their true selves in testing. They usually call a spade a spade, and honestly report how they feel about a specific tested product.

This categorization reveals one plain fact: in testing, for one reason or another, many users may not report their true feelings and responses. Then, how to tell whether the testing user is being insincere in reporting becomes a required technique for us test-conductors. This means we should be able to detect and interpret users’ body language. One rule of thumb from this testing, and a very effective way, is to watch the testing user’s hand gestures and facial expressions, point out the inconsistency between his/her verbal and physical responses and then work with him/her to find out the true reasons behind.

Take a 39-year-old female user for example. She was very representative of the complimentary type, always providing full marks for whatever subjective questions faced by her, claiming now and then “This is marvelous!”, “It is so convenient!”. But when I asked her to accomplish one related testing task, she failed after a very long time of working on it, and explained it was because she knew too little of mobile phones. Of course, this was not true reasons. Later on, I worked together with her through all the procedures involved in the task, explained to her what is interactive mode and eventually identified the designs that fell short of her expectations.

This time, let’s take a 26-year-old male user, a genuine trendsetter, for example. He belonged to the critical type. He breezed through each and every testing task assigned to him, but always scored very low for all designs, insisting they simply lacked creativity. He then actually compared the tested products with a diverse range of homescreens to illustrate his point. After in-depth interviewing, we found he is a loyal user of Apple; products other than Apple will make him uncomfortable. The fact was: his first responses were not true. They were just some flow of first impressions ungrounded by earnest thinking and/or manipulating of the tested products.

How to interpret body language is a sophisticated knowledge. We need to study instances of body language closely in daily interactions, make generalizations about them, and read theories on the subject, so that we can use the knowledge for user testing purposes, to elicit and gather reliable user information to produce useful reports for product development and improvement.

Tiekuaier

User Researcher from Peopeo

http://www.peopeo.de

The work was required to be performed within three days. This was a big challenge, and a perfect opportunity for us to display our best grace under pressure, too. Promptly we built a responsible testing team with experienced user researchers, did all the needed homework, including recruiting testing participants, and drafting testing plan and timeline, and test scripts for usability testing. Prior to the formal testing, a diagnostic test was conducted with representatives from the actual user population for eWalk, gathering data of potential challenges and uncertainties faced by the users.

As the leader of the testing project, altogether I conducted one-on-one usability tests with eight users of the new eWalk within three days, each averaging about one and a half hours. To be frank, tests of such intensity are indeed a big challenge, both physical and mental, for any performer with all those designed tasks. Fortunately, I have done my homework, and gained valuable experience from the preliminary tests. So, the formal tests have worked out right for me. Here are my observations from the tests.

1. Maintain the best state before performing usability tests.

In performing usability tests, when I faced each and every user for the new eWalk, I was always in a highly alert status, ready to answer the user’s questioning at any possible point, and display procedure pages for specific operations accordingly. In order to guarantee adequate amount of energy for best testing effect, I would speed up my preparation for the upcoming session right at the conclusion of the previous session, and then seize every minute to relax. Between the sessions, I would breathe in droughts of fresh air, or look far into the sky, refueling my tired body and mind.

I have long known this from my testing experiences: the performer’s moods and state of mind have great impact on the whole testing process. Alert and dynamic, a performer can swiftly follow the test user’s pace of operating and reasoning, capable of co-textual dialogues with the user and quick to detect and capture the fleeting bits /fragments of valuable information. In contrast, a dull floppy performer will have trouble following the user, or even lose control of the test itself!

Perhaps some of you will say: we can always refer to the videos for user information after the tests. Yeah, that will work for you in some way, but you can neither recover the time wasted on the extra work, nor the most valuable but missing information that can be obtained only through the onsite face-to-face interaction between you and your testee.

Likewise, the testing user can be influenced by the performer’s moods. If the performer is cheerful and encouraging, the user will respond in a more positive way, showing greater willingness to voice his/her preferences. Otherwise, the user will feel dull, inefficient, and unrespected, always responding in a more negative way.

2. Don’t expect the user to do all testing tasks in the order specified in the testing plan.

In usability tests, the users were asked to accomplish some designated tasks,—in fact, a total of 10— in the order specified in the testing plan. But the problem was: they would not operate as instructed! As I noticed from diagnostic tests, in most cases, the testing user will feel greatly tempted to explore buttons of an unfamiliar interface; often when we expect him to click “confirm”, very probably he will click “search” instead to enter a different interface, where some problems are designed for later tasks only.

When this occurred, many users did not correct their operation mistakes immediately, as they were supposed to. Rather, they were attracted by the new thing; they started to think hard about the new problems! At this moment, I would not force my testing user to do as I told them to; I would let him continue his adventure, my thinking following his, discussing the interface with him, eliciting comments from him, exchanging insights now and then.

I understood that such unplanned responses may very well interrupt the designated order for the tens of cards we prepared for the test, and increase the difficulty of after-test data-analyzing, since the testing plan would not work for me then; and worse still, I may very likely follow the user’s thinking too closely as to forget my original purpose!

Despite all those possible risks, still I will stick to my own way: try not to interrupt the user in his exploration, not to mention force him out back to where he should stay unless what he is doing goes too far away from the testing theme. I do believe, when a testing user starts to think without being urged, he is actively involved, his mind working hard to structure some important information he strongly wishes to convey. Any untactful interruption at the point will only cause him to forget the important information he has in mind then or discourage his initiative as to affect his performance in the upcoming tests.

 3. Be patient with the testing user; interrupt the user’s answering with tact.

I have an interesting observation from the usability tests of the new eWalk: when they saw a UI or operational process, almost all users would make some comments, like “the color design of the interface is poor”, “I didn’t expect I had to press this button. This is so very inconvenient”, “This process is very complicated, more so than the other application…”, “you can refer to X’s design to improve this”, etc. when I heard these critical remarks, I would not ask questions right then and there. Instead, I would first listen patiently to the users’ free remarks.

True, sometimes I might feel confused somewhere in the middle of their discussion, and could not probe further without the necessary knowledge. If that’s the case, I would slip in, repeat what they had said and then inquire in a polite tone, “Excuse me, you just mentioned #￥%#￥#, but I don’t quite understand. Could you please explain it for me? ” so that the user will not forget what he said after being interrupted. Partial repetition helps remind him of some clues and quickly return to where he has been cut.

The eWalk project has proceeded very smoothly. Almost each and every testing user has contributed some important information, so our final testing report turns out perfect and well-accepted among customers. Of course, efforts to produce the report are strenuous; often because we did not interrupt users’ thinking and reasoning during the testing, we had to examine thoroughly all the testing videos, audio recordings and written notes, just to confirm a user response to certain task. For the valuable information, for the improvement of eWalk, and for the interest of all users, all we do are worthwhile!

Tiekuaier

User Researcher from Peopeo

 http://www.peopeo.de

To accomplish the project, we soon built our research team, and identified the research subjects and method(s). We decided the sample should drawn from representative user populations of Android, Apple, Ophone and Xiaomi, internally differentiated in terms of age groups and occupational backgrounds. And the most effective method for the project, as all team members agreed, should be “in-depth interview”, an important form of interview for user research, typically conducted by experienced interviewers in an unstructured, one-to-one mode for first-hand user information, including their potential motives, emotions and responses when faced with some given service or system design.

In preparing interview plans, to develop a thorough understanding of potential user responses and needs for the four specified systems, we first had personal contact with the four homescreens, elicited a list of their shared performances and features and their respective uniqueness in interactive modes, UI designs and other areas.

In order not to leave out anything important about homescreens, we conducted some informal investigation through questionnaires among our relatives and friends to find out the most concerned features of mobile homescreens. And the data gathered have in some way supplemented and expanded our user research plan.

To ensure the success of the project, we conducted a preliminary interview with an actual representative user and developed needed knowledge about the adequate amount of time for each interview and potential questions from users during the interview.

The user research lasted for three days, comprising in-depth interviews with eight representative users. From the elicited user data, we found differences in the testing users’ understanding, responses and expectations for homescreens, and quite some findings were really amazing and enlightening. Experience from prior projects and workshops has proved very useful in the conducting of these in-depth interviews, and the co-coordinated and cohesive effort from everyone involved in the research guarantees the eventual success of the project, too.

As head of the user research project, I have successfully conducted in-depth interviews with a total of nine users and developed a profound understanding of the strategies involved in in-depth interviews. In fact, some have turned out to be very effective in eliciting the needed user information. Here I would like to share them with you.

Strategy 1: Keep Alert for Users’ Body Language.

In one case, the in-depth interview was conducted with an eighteen-year-old, male user, still a senior high 3 student. He was very shy and talked little ever since he entered for the interview. When I asked him, “Do you like X (some feature of homescreens)?” very often he would simply respond with “Yes” /“No”, showing almost no intention for further talk, no matter how I tried to elicit his responses.

Shyness, I believe, may be characteristic of this age group’s responses to the society they are still not prepared to join, but not the gesture of both arms crossed on the chest. This was what the boy did with his arms, and this body language tells something of his psychology at the point— he was closed to the outside world.

According to Ray Birdwhistell, an anthropologist who once studied non-linguistic human interactions, 65% or more of the total amount of information generated in a face-to-face exchange were conveyed by non-linguistic means, or body language, the remaining 35% or less coming from linguistic sources.

Therefore, in the process of interviewing users, a very important and effective way to understand the user better is by probing into his/her body language. Take myself. When I noticed the eighteen-year-old senior high3’s unconscious gesture, I told myself: I have to do something. Something that will put the poor boy at home, so that I can elicit more useful information from him.

Guess what? Later in the interview, I asked him to draw on paper what he thought was some feature of homescreen, or offered him more than one phones to play with and allowed him adequate amount of time to feel and compare. Gradually the boy relaxed: his body was now in an open gesture, and his mind more actively engaged; in a word, he behaved more naturally and contributed far more useful information than he would otherwise have.

If the user is in a closed mind throughout the interview, not much can be expected of him. So successful interviewers will constantly watch for the interviewee’s body language, do whatever is necessary to adjust the user’s behavior, and this will help create changes in the user’s psychology, making it possible for him to voice his/her genuine preferences for the tested product.

Strategy 2. Adapt to the User.

Users as individuals are not the same. The first user may perform well in the interview, but this does not suggest all other interviewees will do well too. According to Jung’s Psychological Types and Myer-Briggs’ Type Indicators, the introverts differ a lot from the extroverts type; the latter tend to voice their opinion as they think along, whereas the former prefer to wait till their thoughts mature. In in-depth interviews, the interviewer should allow the user adequate amount of time to think before he/she responds, and this is particularly true with the introverts. So a good knowledge of the user differences is very important for the success of in-depth interview.

My interaction with a 40-year-old male testing user drives this point home to me. This is a very interesting user: Each time I asked, he would speak slowly, and then paused a while before he continued. When the interview began, I had no knowledge of this interesting habit of his. So the first several times when he paused for better expression of his hidden ideas, I mistook it as a clue for conclusion and started to ask him a second question. Then he would abruptly interrupt me, and continue his unfinished talk with detailed elaboration of the previous question, sometimes followed up by a few vivid examples.

But soon I realized my mistake; I had been misunderstanding his pauses! He did not pause to conclude his answering, but to think hard how to convey more clearly feelings still vague in his mind. With this new knowledge, when I questioned him again, I would adapt myself to his slow tone, always allowing him adequate time to think, waiting patiently for his further explanation after his pause.

From this user we have gathered some of the most insightful opinions and feedback. If I had not adapted to his pace of answering, if I had refused to give him more time for thinking, we may very well have missed those valuable data from that particular user.

Strategy 3. Guide the User to Talk about His/Her Experience.

In in-depth interviewing, I found the majority of the testing users preferred to talk about other people’s feelings. Here are some instances:

“I have no problem with this, but the green hands may find it a bit troublesome …”

“Elderly people of my mother’s age may not feel comfortable with this…”

“Well, this should work out right for those who have had experience with it from the very beginning …”

From these utterances, I found the users were being neutral: they deliberately chose to talk about the possible responses from others, but not their owns. Why did this occur?  They did so perhaps in part to guard against potential prejudice from the interviewer, and partly to please the interviewer. But such feedbacks are at best bold guessing of other people’s responses, thus useless. What is truly useful and reliable are the user’s reports of his/her own feelings, opinions and responses.

So, at such moments, do not dwell too much on the interviewee’s report of other users. Instead, guide the user to talk about his/her own feelings and responses. In such case, I will usually ask, “Then, what do YOU think of this?”, “How would you respond in such situations?”, and the like questions to drag the user back into his/her own roles.

Attention: Elicit in a friendly and natural way; Never force the user to talk about himself/herself. Otherwise, the user will withdraw under pressure, reluctant to contribute at all!

These are the three most effective strategies I have observed from this project. Of course, when we conduct user research, make sure we are earnest, sincere, and unprejudiced, always showing due respect for the testing user; make sure the user understands his feedback means a lot to us, and that we are so grateful for his/her generous contribution. Gradually, when the interviewing process becomes a voluntary exchange, and a mutual acceptance, of thoughts and emotions for both parties, the eliciting and gathering of information occurs naturally.

Tiekuaier

User Researcher from Peopeo

http://www.peopeo.de

By usability walkthrough and expert evaluation, different methods have been applied to analysis bank of China online wire transfer usability; in order to help them improve their user experiences thus encourage more and more users to use online banking system..

Client and Partners:

Bank of China

Just view the world as it appears in a distorting mirror with every character being alive. Don’t confine yourself with any limit or frame, just give full play to your imagination and let the story unfold freely and lead you wherever it goes. The story itself is the soul. You should marry the story with an attractive appearance and with this the story becomes alive….

The distinctive features of anime drama make this form the best way to portray characters.

The uniqueness of anime and illustration characters:

Character modeling is delicately designed by the creator. It does not necessarily have the appearance of a human being and it can go much beyond it. The modeling can be closely related with the personalities of the characters and the story plots. Through exaggeration and imagination, the anime characters will have more distinctive features. Without confinements of reality, creators can make full use of their imagination in creation of anime characters. Thus, the anime characters, more often than not, possess superhuman “magic powers”. With this design, the anime characters can impress people more deeply than ordinary characters.

In some short films of artistic creation, the characters are portrayed as icons with specific meaning to reflect the theme or some sentiment or emotion. The characters in commercial anime production have the same dramatic features and creation procedures.

First, characterization in anime should respect the common features of characterization as observed in common film or drama making: vividness and representativeness of characters. The length limit of dramas demands that one or a set of characters threads through dramas, serving as axes with the climax and main theme revolving around them. Of course, they also have their own features.

The only difference between characters in anime and illustration is that the illustration is result of the freeze-framing of splendid moments in the anime, or put it another way, is an excellent “photographer”.

NO.1 Shining hero

Disney’s Frog Prince

Exclusiveness of the hero makes the center of the dramatic conflict. In reviewing his creation career, Disney concludes that the anime needs a strong and appealing main character. This can be realized by naming of the anime, making the fate of the main character and the plot development being closely bound as an organic whole. Thus, the film concentrates on the main character and makes it more prominent. So, in designing the dramatic plot, the first thing to do is to determine which character will serve as the main character. The conflict, plot and atmosphere should all be developing around the character. To be specific, the main character should take much more time of the drama than others. Second and more important, the main character should take the main position in the drama. It serves as the most important and most powerful driving force pushing for development of the plot. The conflict starts with him, develops with him and ends with him.

NO. 2 Personalities of anime characters

Manuscript of WALL·E

Unique personalities of anime characters: typed personalities and childlike innocence. The typed characters have two features. First, their personalities are strong and clear. We tend to generalize their personalities with one or two words for viewers to grasp easily. Second, compared with main characters in reality, the typed characters are ones which are created with elaboration and exaggeration. They are enriched by more vivid details and therefore are more distinctive. Then how to create typed characters: character positioning: the idea of sensible and general character positioning is of great influence to the image of anime characters, and even of decisive influence to the animated film as a whole. Elaboration, exaggeration and even extremalization of “original characters”. The characters, treated this way, will become more distinctive, a feature required by all anime characters. (Exaggeration and imagination are the soul of animation.) The most important element is to inject more details in the direction of individualization of characters. Finally, let’s talk about the differences in character design in highlighting distinctive features of characters.

NO.3 Arm characters with a pair of wings of imagination

Manuscript of WALL·E

First, the overall design of the film should be a product of imagination in order to create a freshly imaginative world to attract audience. Second, characters should be endowed with animated features, i.e., sort of supernatural power. As Disney noted, “imagination and exaggeration” are the soul of animation. Characters in the film, or anime characters, should embody both of them.

Jared: You can only advance with an insatiable desire for improvement. The moment you feel your works are excellent and satisfied with yourself is just the starting point of your failure! So you should never cease to learn and by doing this make yourself stronger!

Weili Peopeo

Lenovo developed the first Tablet PC, Le-pad in early 2011, its “Made in china” stigma brought it even more attention by domestic users. Le-pad 2 it is its upgrade version, and planed to launch the market in the middle of 2011. Based on the original Android2.2 system, this new version will be equipped with the latest Android3.0 system, with more apps special designed and developed to meet Chinese users’ needs.

Peopeo’s Job：

Peopeo has done the interaction design for Lenovo Le-Pad2. Peopeo studies Android 3.0 operating system before successfully transplanting the applications from Android 2.2 to Android 3.0, based on users’ requirements and habits. The layouts and interactions are thus re-constructed and optimized. The whole interaction design, together with the Lenovo brand image, has been absorbed into our creative design concepts and has helped create best user experiences.

The Challenge:

With Le-pad 2 operating system having been upgraded to Android 3.0 Honeycomb platform, applications get improved and upgraded, as well as the controls, and interfaces. It possesses a vast sum of information and a large number of functional modules. So user-friendly and fresh interactions and simple but clean layout and interfaces need to be designed according to users’ requirements and habits.

The Solution:

Based on the characteristics of Android 3.0, Peopeo utilizes simple control layouts, puts main feature icons on the top of the interface right at the control bar. The number of displays is effectively controlled. The display mode of left and right columns is used and information and function modules are integrated, operation processes simplified. The final design utilizes a combination of advantages of Honeycomb system with friendly interactions.

Clients & Partners:

Lenovo Group

Project Brief:

This is a redesign for PingAn bank micro loan programs. The new design will be parallel with insurance, banking and other first level webpages. And it need to be more fit with market demand.

The Challenge:

The overall requirements for the new micro loan program site: professional, intellectual, steady and reliable; create a vivid and effective sales environment; emphasize online communication, online sales, IB (telephone sales), etc.; strong sales orientation.

The Solution:

Starting from the target user analysis, through the establishment of the personas, Peopeo team analyzed the use case, build up the site map and information architecture, design the layouts, interactions and interfaces, and the product strategies. Peopeo team had gone through every details to help shape a successful products.
1 Different colors have been used for different products mainly to convey the concept of product value. The color had been used for each product page addition to color of PingAn corporate image colors. Blue is calm and rational; orange is full of enthusiasm and fashion; green make people feel easy, sustainable; and yellow is noble, and brilliant. Hence, small consumer loans is easy, so green has been used as primary colors. The new Generation Loan page used orange color.
(2) Vivid image of real people have been used for the ads banners on the pages. to strengthen peace and human cultures closer communication with the user’s distance and enhanced affinity, and bring real convincing and appealing. In addition to the main picture into banner advertising, and enhanced visual effects and impact. (Currently the design is to find a picture of resources, will take into account the actual use of copyright issues, but banking products with images of people to promote a number of large international banks and financial institutions the usual means, in draw closer, to convey information effectively is very have practical significance.)
3 forum yet lively in the regular arrangement, each block with rounded corners, columns and photos, so gentle and humane.
4 with overall elegance and detail at the front of the corresponding analysis of the primary colors and color safe business.
5 In the arrangement of the content is also based on the user’s cognitive style and visual habits and needs to do to convey the information content of the corresponding primary and secondary consideration.
6 to consider the full layout and typesetting permeability, are appropriate, rigorous and lively.
7 step loan process diagram using clear, and placed in a conspicuous position.
8 conscious layout and page through the form, content, leading to drive sales.

Clients & Partners:

PingAn Bank

Project Brief：

Qifang is a domeatic Internet start up working on online small personal loan business. It provides a “peer2peer” (P2P) loan service. That is to allow the lenders lend money to more than one borrowers through the website, lenders charge interest to get rewards, and the borrower can raise the fund from a number of lenders. Qifang has become one of 34 companies who won “2009 World Technology Pioneer” awards on the World Economic Forum, and was the only Chinese company to win this award since 1999.

The Challenge:

Peer to peer loan was considered a pioneering innovation in Europe, but it also suffers from high breaching of contract rates and the uncertainty of management authority thus developing very slow. So does in China. Besides, online lending is a gray area in China and it is a new thing. Perhaps one day it will be accepted by the public like online shopping and online payment, but there also many uncertainties. It may accidentally touch the “land mines” then forced to shut down, so the risk is high. Not only is the national policy, but also because lack of credit, this model still requires a very long period of guildance.
And the volume of visitors to Qifang is small and the online activity has been very slow. Profit model has been difficult to set up.

The Solution:

Although Qifang chose to focus on the student loan market when they conduct the business in China domestic market. The needs is cleaer and rish is lower. And Qifang will transfer the money directly to the educational institution, which at some point, solved the problems which the original model in overseas markets had encountered. However, the degree of users’ activeness is still not enough, and there has been no revenue, but simply to rely on angel investment capital.
Peopeo team analyzed the domestic situation, re-define the business model for Qifang, also developed a profit model and provided the corresponding design and strategy. Peopeo even had been taken over the operations for almost a year, the CEO of Peopeo, Mr. Tingbin Tang also served as the CEO of Qifang for a period of time. Peopeo analysized that, since China has not been established the social security number, and personal credit system is not well developed, lending through the network is difficult to form a trust. However, the Chinese people has no shortage of compassion, and China’s average weekly charitable donations are close to 0.4 billion yuan, especially in the field of education. So Peopeo helped Qifang to make some strategic adjustments, and introduced the charity donation function. During the operation process, a lot of money had been donated to many primary schools through Qifang. Peopeo had also planned a variety of business model, in addition to Lend to Help borrowing function, Donate to Help donation function, Peopeo also proposed Shop to Help Charity shopping, Game to Help and Ads to Help models. But then because Qifang board sold it out, the other profit model did not get a chance to proceed.

There is an iron railing in the photo. Why is the milk packet put on it?

When tired after long walking, why would we like to sit down on a bare smooth slabstone for a rest?

When we read or play games on the subway, why do we lean back unconsciously against the compartment wall?

……

Why are there so many cases like these and why are there so many “without thinkings”?

Because the square end of the railing resembles the shape of the milk packet;

Because a slabstone is smooth, even and clean, looking so much like a chair in our daily life;

Because people are all instinctively afraid of attacks from behind and they feel safe when they lean against “something”.

……

In the design industry, Donald Norman put forward a theory—excellent designs do not need user manuals! If any user blames himself/herself for being unable to use the product or unable to understand the user manual, all the blame should be put on the designer for being too inconsiderate!!!

Desk lamp with a tray. This type of desk lamp is designed by Naoto Fukasawa, aiming to end the phenomenon that people put their keys and mobile phones randomly on entering their houses and will forget all about the whereabouts of these gadgets when going out. By observing people’s daily behavior, the designer has found out that the first thing most people do when going back home at night is turn on the light. So he studies and makes use of this habit and uses a tray as the stand of a desk lamp. On turning on the light, users of this type of desk lamp will subconsciously put their keys into the tray. When turning off the light on going out, they will surely notice and take their keys with them. It is so natural. No user manual or any notice tells the users to put their gadgets in the tray, however they will automatically follow the designer’s intentions.

The above example is a case of application of exterior shape in real product. The GUI design in Internet and mobile terminal is equally excellent though it is also distinctive. The following are some areas I can think of to serve as a prelude to golden ideas.

Color

Let’s take the you-see-every-day traffic lights as an example. The concept of “Red for stop, green for go and yellow for wait” is already deeply rooted in people’s minds, so implanting the special meaning of the different colors of the traffic lights in the GUI design is just a case in point and users can utilize them readily and instinctively. In the following interface of an Apple software, the red button means closing down, comparable to stop in traffic regulations; the green button denotes amplification, something similar to go in traffic rules; the yellow button means minimizing to status bar, similar to setting aside for use. Besides, the green button is for dialing a number while the red one is for stopping a call. All these are excellent cases of color use.

Shape

Users have built up many concept models in their daily life. They can use correctly without thinking once the designer succeeds in applying these concepts seamlessly into GUI design practice.

Let’s take a look at the following GUI design of WP7 . Every screen, once completely unfolded, resembles an ancient horizontal scroll of painting. But how can it be possible for a first-time user to know all this and unfold the screen horizontally without thinking? Do the green boxes in the following screens resemble our commonly seen labels after you take a close look at them? Do you feel any impulse deep in your heart to take them out and see what they really are? If you do, it is just what the design is meant for. 

The second example is more direct, clear and natural. The picture does not need any explanation and it speaks all for itself.

Position

In my view, position is another platform for wisdom. As in the following picture, we will date the letter and sign our name at the bottom once we finish writing it. Ok, that’s it! The GUI design stipulates that when we open a window or log onto an interface as we commonly do, we always fill with our relevant information first, then check for any error, before finally clicking “Log in” ,”Submit” ”Finish” or ”Next” buttons. This shows that the users’ mental models have been unconsciously influenced by the concept of position.

Afterword

Products can be so well designed that they can be used without user manuals. I think GUI design can also reach the stage where users can understand everything without learning from a handbook. For designers like us, all we need to do is scrutinize, experience and learn from every bit of life so that we, through different designs of color, shape and position, will enable users, first-time users in particular, to know and use the products at will and without thinking.

Peopeo GUI Designer ——Weixu

项目介绍

“莎莉的圣诞节”是一款针对圣诞节推出的游戏。
游戏优势：游戏界面精美，画面细腻，道具设定有趣，互动性强，并且操作简单，可随时随地进行游戏操作。
游戏风格：手绘风格配合丰富的色彩，整体游戏色调看起来很鲜亮，以二维平视图效果呈现
游戏特色（商业卖点）

（1）操作简单，互动性强，随时可以玩（上下班坐车时，午休）

（2）游戏完成的图片可以写上祝福语，并以Email或彩信的形式发送给好朋友们。增进 感情
增加游戏的宣传力度，使更多的朋友问及游戏并分享下载。

飘飘人的工作

弹弓互动是飘飘人孵化的一家围绕动漫和游戏的公司。飘飘人的工作不仅在于团队的组建，前期的资金投入，方向指导，资源整合，还包括前期平台的建设，产品的设计，开发，商业模式的建立，引入后期投资，等一系列的服务。这本电子书就是弹弓互动在飘飘人的孵化环境下和飘飘人创意，设计，研发团队共同推出的。